Electrical wholesaler 3Line Electrical is rolling out planning and logistics software from Podfather to drive its customer service and improve management reporting.
Still in the early stages of implementation, the logistics planning, route optimisation and electronic proof of delivery tool has been deployed at three of 3Line Electrical’s 13 branches and is already improving customer communications and reducing queries.
It’s also delivering valuable analytics and insights on 3Line’s delivery operation, such as vehicle mileage, which will be used to inform fleet management decisions and company expansion plans.
Dave Kenny, operations manager at 3Line Electrical, said: “Before Podfather we obviously knew what vans we had but we didn’t know what they doing. Each van has a monthly cost, so, for example, if we had one that was doing one delivery a day then that van isn’t viable, however if another is doing 60 deliveries a day that’s not viable either.
“Having used Podfather in a previous role I knew what the software could do,” he continued. “In the first month of using Podfather we already have processes in place and more business intelligence than ever before, which is reducing the number of queries we get on a day-today basis and allowing us to benchmark our operation to inform future decision-making.”
3Line is now rolling out the software to other branches and adopting more of the features on offer, which will underpin future fleet management decisions with regard to cost and environmental impact.
